And Jesus Brought a Casserole
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and fourteen: She's getting more comfortable in Glee Club, and this includes certain realizations...


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 18th cycle. Now cycle 19!_

**TV Titles Cycle **- So this is Cycle 20! I wanted to do something special, so here we are! Some of you may remember a while back me asking for episode titles from tv shows. I've always found that a lot of shows have great episode titles, so this is how this cycle came to be. Each story will be inspired and titled after an episode from a different show. The influence of the episode may vary from story to story, not seeking to rely completely on it ;) You'll see...  
**Today's Show/Title:** "NCIS" - _Bête Noire_

_A/N: My. Goodness... I swear I'm not gonna make a habit of being so late. Had my last final today, early morning, and after that I was so physically and mentally spent, took a while to get things together, but here it is! Hopefully now that I'm on holiday things will return to normal a bit ;)_

_BTW, if you haven't already, please check out yesterday's **"Bete Noire"**? Poor little ficlet, feel like it will have gotten lost in the shuffle, being posted so late ;)_

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**"And Jesus Brought A Casserole"  
Quinn & Glee Club **

They weren't that different, all of them… It might have seemed otherwise, what with the way they acted like they belonged to different, separate species, but being among them... some of them… in Glee Club, she saw them as people, actual people. In the beginning, she just stuck to her thing… Santana, and Brittany, and of course Finn… Puck, but she wasn't going there now… She saw no point in mingling with… others, not for what Glee Club was to her.

She'd had to adjust her ideas with time. Some of it was the pregnancy… The vast majority of the McKinley student body only knew her from afar, an entity… The popular girl, the head cheerleader, the president of the celibacy club… They would hear of her condition, and they would judge her, she knew… She could act like it didn't affect her, but it did… And maybe Glee wasn't snark free, but it was different. They were starting to know her there, she was becoming a real person, to all of them and, in ways she hadn't expected, to herself as well. She was starting to depend on their presence. Sometimes they confused her, annoyed her, angered her… cheered her, liked her, made her laugh… She hadn't told them this, not in any way she knew, but still she had to think…

Maybe things could change… Perhaps it was hormones, but she wanted them to feel like they could talk to her more and she wouldn't be… Quinn Fabray, the cheerleader… She'd be Quinn, their friend from Glee… Maybe, definitely hormones… Just as well, because she'd never have the guts otherwise… She knew loneliness as much as they did; they had one more thing in common.

How was she supposed to get it started though? Just show up, all smiles like a kid on the first day of school, asking them to be her friends? They were a bit beyond that… they'd already been on the playground, and she had gone and pushed them around… That wasn't the kind of thing that you forgot so easily… Was she alone in this? Would they, did they care, too? It would feel worse if she went and made and outing, finding they had no interest at all, for reasons further even than their past shared history.

It would certainly break the norm, which always got noticed, accompanied by an expression which read as something like 'has she fallen on her head?' But she couldn't let that keep her away… Call it a front, but the person she'd become did involve an element of courage, determination, and she was determined to act for a change… She liked Glee Club, how she felt when she was there, with them… 'Glee Club' wasn't a thing, an activity, it was people… The twelve of them, Mr. Schuester, Brad and the band… When they were all together she felt more at ease than most places… more at home.

And as great a feeling as it was, she wasn't sure they knew that she felt it. If they still thought she was the same girl who'd walked into their world intent on destroying it, of course they wouldn't go and reciprocate a damn thing. Maybe they weren't going to become instant and great friends, but they could at least move past… the past.

Would she be a hypocrite? She was starting to like them all, but still the thought of what everyone else would think of her for being a part of this played in the back of her mind. She had trepidations at the sight of a Slushie; that was about as pleasant as actually getting one thrown at their face. One day she could tell them all 'yeah, so what?'… maybe… but that day wasn't this day.

So she couldn't just go and lay out this whole 'Hey, let's be friends?' right at their feet… That was okay; it sounded odd anyway. But she could act differently. Her mother used to tell her to act how she wanted to be treated… It was simple, but that was why it could work. If she was friendly, genuinely so this time, then maybe they would see she'd lowered her shields, just enough to let them in. She imagined there would continue to be moments where they disagreed or argued, moments where she'd want to roll her eyes a bit…

But that was normal… interaction… friendship. Nothing was perfect, try as they might, and that went for people just as much. She was ready to open to them, because even if she wouldn't say the words 'Rachel Berry was right' in that sequence… out loud… but she was going to need them. If she wanted it as an option, she'd need to show she wanted it as much as she needed it.

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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